Black Sea Initiative exports top 30 million tons from Ukraine, as talks continue on renewal
That is the message issued by the head of the UN Humanitarian Commission, Martin Griffiths, to a meeting held on Wednesday in Istanbul, to discuss the future of the Initiative, with the senior official from the signatories to the agreement, Russia, and Ukraine, with the UN and Türkiye, which also signed the agreement.
It is important for global food security
In a note sent to the press from the UN Spokesperson’s Office on the meeting, Mr. Griffiths congratulated the parties to the agreement – which also manages the port of the Joint Coordination Center, based in Istanbul – to reach the 30 million metric mark tonnes from Ukraine, and “repeats the importance of the Initiative for global food security”.
The UN relief chief also recognized the important role of food and goods exports from Russia.
UN proposal
The meeting discussed recent proposals to improve the agreement, made by the UN, that is restart of the Togliatti-Odesa ammonia pipelinethem long extension originated, Progress of the JCC“for stable services and exports, and other issues raised by the parties.”
“Parties express their views and get to engage with those elements moving forward”, said the Spokesperson’s Office.
Mr. Griffiths emphasized that the United Nations will “continue to work closely with all parties to achieve continuity and full implementation of the Initiative, in pursuit of their broad shared commitment to address global food insecurity. “
Grain for those who need it most
The latest figures on the initiative released on Monday show that it is almost enough 600,000 tons of grain have been sent by ships assembled by the World Food Program (WFP) to support its humanitarian work in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Yemen.
Last year, Ukraine provided more than half of WFP’s total global wheat purchases, which is similar to 2021.
As talks have continued over the past few months about extending the deal – which provides a safeguard Maritime humanitarian corridor for export of Ukrainian ports – exports have dipped by almost 30 per cent, with JCC inspection rates dropping significantly to 2.9 percent of inspections completed per day, for the month of May.
Monday’s update from the Office of the UN President for the agreement, said that the UN and Turkey’s representative are working closely with Ukraine and Russia, aiming to facilitate the movements and inspections of incoming and outgoing ships, “between the principle of origin and the principles adoptedwhile discussions for the future of the initiative continue.”
